Potato-bug destroyer



(No Model.)

W. SNOBBLE.

POTATO BUG DESTROYBR.

No. 461,551. Patented Oct. 20,1891.

witnassgs: Inuemtor- UNITED STATES PATENT I OFFICE.

WILLIAM SN OBBLE, SOUTH HAVEN, MICHIGAN.

- POTATO-BUG DESTROYER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 461,551, dated October 20, 1891.

Application filed February 3, 1891.- Serial No. 379,982. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM SNOBBLE, a citizen of the United States, residingat South Haven, county of Van Buren, State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Potato- Bug Destroyer, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines provided with an endless traveling apron and means for gathering the bugs onto forward portion of said apron, said apron traveling between two rollers, which crush the bugs.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is aplan view; Fig. 2, a side elevation; Fig. 3, a rear elevation, parts being in section on line5 5 in Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a detail of lettered parts below described.

Referring to the lettered parts of the drawings, A represents a wheeled frame, to which the tongue or thills is attached for drawing the machine. Below this frame is another frame B, which can be raised and lowered at will by the ordinary lever arrangement N e. The front end of this frame is substantially level, while the rear portion is at an upward incline. At or near the center of said frame are two rollers L M, one above another.

In the front end of the frame B is a shaft E, and the rear end of said frame is provided with a shaft E, and these two shafts carry the endless apron D, the upper part passing between the rollers L M and the lower part of said apron passing beneath the roller M.

Mounted upon the rear end of the frameA is a transverse shaft provided at one end with a gear H and a sprocket-wheel G. The hub of one of the wheels is provided with a sprocketwheel F. Motion is transmitted from the sprocket-wheel F to the sprocketwheel G by means of sprocket-chain J. The shafts E E are gear-connected by gears H I, Fig. 3. The opposite ends of the shafts E E are connected by sprocket wheels and chains K, as in Fig. 1. By this means motion is imparted to the shafts when the machine is in operation, thus causing the endless belt to travel around the end shafts and between the rollers L M. The bug-gatherers consist of arms 0, radiating from an upright axis, as in Figs. 1 and 2, said arms being arranged over the apron and in position to engage the tops of the potatovines and sweep the bugs onto said apron. The axles of the gatherers O are connected with shaft E at each end by beveled gears S. as in Figs. 2 and 4. Thus when motion is imparted to the machine the bugs which are swept onto the front end of the apron D will be carried back between the rollers L M, where theyare crushed, and are thence carried and deposited over the rear end of the machine. If found necessary, a suitable scraper may be employed for freeing the apron from the crushed bugs.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

The combination of the wheeled frameand a supplemental frame beneath the wheeled frame and suspended therefrom, a shaft in the front and rear end of the supplemental frame, an endless belt carried by said shafts, 

